USA worried about 5G technology in the hands of China

DEPARTMENT OF STATE -
Xu Ning from VOA Mandarin and reporter Rob Garver contributed to this report.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE: The United States recognizes that many countries are not paying attention to warnings about possible security risks by allowing Chinese technology giant Huawei to build the next generation of wireless networks known as 5G.

The trend is particularly clear in Southeast Asia, where even US allies. UU They are competing to partner with Huawei and launch 5G networks in the coming years.

In February, Thailand launched a Huawei 5G test network in Chonburi. The Thai authorities indicated that the affordability of Huawei's 5G services counteracted potential concerns about cybersecurity.

In the Philippines, Globe Telecom is deploying the 5G network in partnership with Huawei.

In Malaysia, the leading digital and communications services company in the country, Maxis, signed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei to cooperate and accelerate the development of 5G.

This week, six former top US military officers UU., Including two who were commanders of the US Pacific Command. The US issued a strong warning about a future in which a 5G network developed by the Chinese could be widely adopted among American allies.

"The immense bandwidth and access potential inherent in 5G business systems means that effective military operations in the future could benefit from the transmission of military data over these networks," they added.

And the Secretary of State of the USA. UU., Mike Pompeo, warned on Thursday that some European countries could soon be isolated from the intelligence of the United States. UU And other critical information if you continue to cultivate relationships with Chinese technology companies."We have done our risk analysis," said Pompeo, after a NATO ministerial meeting in Washington. "Now we have shared it with our NATO partners, with countries around the world, we have made it clear that if the risk exceeds the threshold for the United States, we simply can not share that information any longer."

For USA UU., The threat posed by a communications network built by Chinese could not be clearer.

"Huawei is not a state-owned company, but Huawei is a Chinese company and what we do know is several things: one, in general terms, Chinese companies will respond to requests from the Chinese government." Telecommunications are a vital part It has implications for military security, financial and economic implications, "said Dean Cheng, principal investigator for the Heritage Foundation, based in Washington.

Huawei insists that it would not hand over the information to the Chinese authorities if they demanded it, but few external analysts believe that any Chinese company would support the country's authoritarian government. US officials are even more direct.

Richard Kramer, founder of Arete, a technology research firm based in London, said leaks by US security agencies. UU In recent years they have revealed close cooperation between the federal government and US telecommunications and technology firms. UU

The position of the United States, he said, seems to be: "we do not want China to spy on us, but we want to be able to spy on them."

Even in countries where there are open political concerns about the growing power of Chinese influence, too much pressure from the United States could be counterproductive, said Anthony Nelson, Director of East Asia and the Pacific at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm. business.